The sudden reintroduction of travel bans following the discovery of the Omicron Covid-19 variant has cost the SA para-surfing team their spot at the sixth ISA World Parasurfing Championships which will be taking part in California, USA later this month.
Picture: SUPPLIED
“It was about three or four days before I was meant to travel that I was told I had to can all that,” said local surfer JP Veaudry who was part of the team.
“I thought ‘I have a British passport so maybe I can go via the UK’ but then they were saying I still needed to have a ten-day quarantine and even in that case, I still wouldn’t be allowed into the US.”
To add insult to injury, preparations for the competition had been done well in advance.
“We had all booked our flights. The rest of the team had to get visas, that’s not something you can do a few days before,” Veaudry said. “Then we heard on the news [about the travel bans].”
In the months running up to the Championships, the team had campaigned hard to raise money and sponsorships.
Veaudry said they had managed to secure sponsored boards, clothing and other equipment, even hosting a Golf Day that raised about R20,000.
While that money won’t be going towards this year’s efforts, he said that he’s been allowed to keep the money that was raised until the next tournament.
For Veaudry, this will be the first World Championship he’s not taken part in since its inception six years ago.
For other team members, he said, the situation hit harder.
“Some of these people in the team might not get a chance again because we’ll have to have trials again next year and go through the whole process.
“They were banking on getting their SA colours and that might not be the case any more.”
